Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Directed by Ridley Scott
After his wife dies, a blacksmith named Balian is thrust into royalty, political intrigue and bloody holy wars during the Crusades.
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16 films that influenced Kingdom of Heaven
What critics say influenced Kingdom of Heaven
If anything, "Kingdom of Heaven" feels like a throwback to the days of Anthony Mann's 1961 "El Cid," a similarly hokey-yet-polished tale of heroism and honor in the face of Islamic aggression from roughly the same period and filmed in many of the same Spanish locales.
The irony should not be lost on the fact that David Fincher's Mank, a dramatized feature about the writing of one of Orson Welles's greatest films, Citizen Kane (1941), is being released by the streaming giant Netflix.
Scott's penchant for visual artistry and attention to detail enables him to create distinctive visual worlds onscreen, from reinventing sci-fi with “Alien” to reimagining ancient Rome with “Gladiator.”
Sir Ridley Scott has given us some amazing films in the past, including “Alien,” “Blade Runner,” and “Gladiator,” films that have you glued to the screen every step of the way.
When he isn't busy with science-fiction hits such as "Alien" and "Blade Runner," or military movies like "Black Hawk Down" and "G.I.
No stranger to directors cuts, Ridley Scott has previously created alternate versions of both "Alien" (1979) and "Blade Runner" (1982), the latter of which is probably one of the most popular and controversial directors cuts of all time.
An extremely loose prequel to 1979's Alien, Prometheus follows a team of explorers, including Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw, Michael Fassbender's David, and Idris Elba's Janek, as they travel to (and arrive at) a distant planet purported to contain extraterrestrial life - with the film subsequently detailing the chaos that ensues as said extraterrestrials make their malevolent intentions clear.
But poor Green (The Dreamers) has absolutely nothing to do but stand at the top of high towers and gaze into the distance through her Valley Girl-inspired makeup.
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Like his hero, David Lean, Ridley Scott always has trouble with his scripts, but -- whether he's dealing with the past of "Gladiator," the present of "Black Hawk Down" or the future of "Blade Runner" -- he also always manages to magnificently fill his screen.
Sir Ridley Scott has given us some amazing films in the past, including “Alien,” “Blade Runner,” and “Gladiator,” films that have you glued to the screen every step of the way.
No stranger to directors cuts, Ridley Scott has previously created alternate versions of both "Alien" (1979) and "Blade Runner" (1982), the latter of which is probably one of the most popular and controversial directors cuts of all time.
Scott is a masterful creator of otherworldly and noncontemporaneous locales, as films such as Gladiator, Blade Runner, and The Duellists will attest.
When he isn't busy with science-fiction hits such as "Alien" and "Blade Runner," or military movies like "Black Hawk Down" and "G.I.
Even Neeson, whose wonderful performances in Schindler's List and last year's Kinsey , has failed to ignite the picture.
I wanted more Lawrence of Arabia stuff, more about this man falling in love with a place and a people far more exotic than he could possibly have ever imagined from his formerly tiny provincial perspective -- there are only a few bones thrown at the idea that Balian comes to truly appreciate and understand his father's desire to protect not the endlessly fought…
Was Ridley Scott trying to make a medieval epic, or was he trying to remake Kevin Smith’s Dogma?
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Between the Second and Third Crusades, the enlightened King Baldwin (Edward Norton, "The Italian Job") ruled over a Jerusalem that allowed Christians, Muslims and Jews to all worship on their holy grounds.
Scarcely four years after he directed "Gladiator" to a Best Picture Oscar, effectively reinventing the sword-and-sandals genre for the 21st century, Scott now seems more imitative than innovative, falling into many of the same pitfalls -- namely a failure to counterbalance bombast and scale with thoughtful detail -- that consumed Oliver Stone's "Alexander" and Wolfgang Petersen's "Troy."
With "Kingdom of Heaven," director Ridley Scott rehabilitates the historical action epic in the wake of the depredations recently visited upon it by the likes of Antoine Fuqua (with last year's "King Arthur") and Oliver Stone (with the very silly "Alexander").
Scott keeps the action tightly concentrated on Balian, never losing focus the way Oliver Stone did in Alexander.
Within the space of the last twelve months, weve been subjected to Troy, Alexander and now Kingdom of Heaven - three maddeningly boring films that seem designed to test the endurance of the human bladder.